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STRATEGIC ISSUES...ONLINE
For week
of January 24, 2005, Issue #196
Featured
Articles:
1.
California Tax Amnesty
2. Search
for Fraud
3. Tech
Tip Weekly: Switching Between Multiple
MS Word Documents
4.
Compliance Calendar
1. California Tax Amnesty
If you have done business in California
anytime in the past and have not filed
the proper California tax returns now is
the time to come clean. California has
a tax amnesty plan that will run from
February 1 to March 31 tax year.
What is tax amnesty?
If you are an eligible individual or
business taxpayer, California's 2005 tax
amnesty program offers you a window of
opportunity. Pay your past-due income,
franchise, sales or use tax and you
won't have to pay most penalties and
fees or fear prosecution.
Who is eligible?
California individual and business
taxpayers are eligible for amnesty for
taxable years beginning before January
1, 2003 if they did any of the
following:
-Did not file the required California
tax returns.
-Underreported income on a previously
filed tax return.
-Claimed excessive deductions.
-Did not pay previously assessed taxes,
interest, penalties, or fees.
Who is not eligible?
-Taxpayers currently under criminal
investigation or prosecution on
tax-related matters;
-Abusive tax shelter transactions that
were eligible for relief under
California's Voluntary Compliance
Initiative or the 2003 IRS Offshore
Voluntary Compliance Initiative. These
initiatives applied to taxpayers with
nonreported or underreported tax
liability amounts attributable to an
investment in an abusive tax shelter.
Note: These taxpayers are eligible for
amnesty for non-abusive tax shelter
items.
What happens if I am eligible
and choose not to participate in the
amnesty program?
If you are eligible for amnesty and
choose not to participate, you may be
subject to substantial, new penalties.
California nexus can be established in
many ways. If you had employees working
in the state of California or if you had
property you own or rent located at any
time in California, you should contact
us.
If you have questions about whether you
owe California taxes, please call your
Prangley Marks professional now.
2. Search for Fraud
Not surprisingly, typing in the word
'fraud' into google.com yielded a
whopping 19,400,000 hits this morning.
And also, not a surprise that fraud.org
came up first; by the way, an
informative site.
It was interesting to scroll through
some of the first few pages listed by
Google.
You don't have to search very hard to
find fraud; somewhat unfortunate, but,
oftentimes, preventable for business.
Contact us to further discuss business
fraud prevention possibilities.
3. Tech Tip Weekly: Switching Between
Multiple MS Word Documents
MS Word lets you work on up to a zillion
documents at once. Well, actually, you
can work on several documents at once.
Whenever you open a new document or
choose File, New to start a new document
from scratch, Word opens another
document window.
All the document windows appear as
buttons on the taskbar. To switch from
one document to another, click its
button on the taskbar.
-A quick way to switch from one document
window to another is to press the
Alt+Tab key combination.
-Another way to switch documents is to
use the Window menu. Alas, the Window
menu displays only the first nine
documents you have open (which is a
bunch). For any more than nine windows,
you see a More Windows menu item that
displays the entire list of all the
documents and windows you're working on
in Word.
-The goings-on in one document are
independent of any other: Printing,
spell checking, and formatting affect
only the document you can see on screen.
-You can copy a block from one document
to the other. Just mark the block in
the first document, copy it (press
Ctrl+C), open the second document, and
paste it in (Ctrl+V).
4. Compliance Calendar
January 26
-Employers deposit Social security,
Medicare, and withheld income tax for
payments on January 19, 20, and 21.
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This newsletter has been compiled by
Prangley Marks, LLP for our clients
and other interested persons. The
information presented may or may not
apply to your facts and circumstances
and should not be acted upon without
professional advice.
Prangley
Marks,
LLP
Accountants
and
Consultants
"The
Way
We
Figure,
We
Are
The
Only
CPA
Firm
You
Will
Ever
Need"
333
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49504-5356
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